Irrigation

Irrigating California avocado trees can be challenging for several reasons. Avocado trees are heavy users of water but they have a shallow feeder root system located primarily in the top six inches of soil that are prone to drying out. The feeder roots also have very few root hairs, thus making them inefficient at absorbing water. Hillside groves with decomposed granite drain well, but they drain rather quickly. Groves with high clay content can suffer from poor drainage that leads to root rot.

For the above reasons, monitoring soil moisture in avocado groves is important.

It’s important to manage the costs of irrigating avocado trees in order to be a successful California avocado grower. To ensure your irrigation is not wasting water resources, consider the following avocado cultural management practices.

To get the best results from avocado grove irrigation, it is very important to measure soil moisture levels with reasonable accuracy when deciding when and how much to irrigate. Poor irrigation practices cost California Avocado growers in several ways.